VICTORIAN AGE
In 1867 Queen Victoria ascends the throne of England at the age of 18, reigns for 64 years and is the "Victorian Age".
In 1832, in politics, she proposes a reform law, to improve the middle class, which are workers and peasants, because
with the Poor Law Amendment Act, the workhouses are born where families live in poor conditions. For 10 years,
industry goes through a period known as the "hungry 40" because it doesn’t produce well, and in 1838 the Chartist
movement is born demanding: higher wages, voting rights, representation in Parliament, and better living conditions.
These demands are not accepted is the movement disappeared, but it gave birth to labor unions. After the Poor Law,
workhouses are born in society where the poor work in exchange for food and shelter, but after the Industrial
Revolution, new technologies are born and people go from the countryside to places where there are factories, called
urban slums. The city of London is divided into 2 parts:
- the western part, where the rich live and there are parks;
- the eastern part, is full of factories and in fact Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli says England is made up of 2 nations
that share nothing, as if they live on 2 different planets.
In 1848 there is a revolutionary period in Europe, called splendid isolation, but not in England thanks to the Queen's
reforms:
- 10 hours workday act for women and children;
- mines act, prohibiting work for women and children under 10 and under 18 no work at night;
- public health act improving health conditions;
- act of elementary education to all children;
- right to all religious beliefs, which is why Catholics can enter Oxford and Cambridge and work in government;
- the English week by which Saturday afternoons and Sundays are not worked.
The empire consists of: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong Kong, Asia, Gibraltar, Malta
and Cyprus and its inhabitants called Victorians, believe that the sun never sets on the empire and to avoid the
opposite, that is, rebellions, the country must accept proposals from the colonies, which become dominions. During
this period industry grows and the following are born: cars, locomotives, telegraphs and lighting. In 1851 the queen's
husband, Albert, organizes the great international exhibition is in London, in the crystal palace that is a glass and
metal structure, placed in Hyde Park and where there are the new innovations, which identify England as a power.
The policy (politifca) is called Laissez-faire and is based on free trade (libero scambio), which leads to the
development of only one part of society, while the poor part still lives in poor conditions. It is called the Victorian
Compromise and there are new innovations to change the situation, such as building schools, hospitals and prisons.
The values of society are: good manners, chastity, sobriety, faith in God and material progress. The family is the most
important institution, it is ruled by the father, and women are controlled by their parents until marriage and may
teach or be rulers of wealthy families, but then its figure changes.
The Victorian age is also remembered as the age of storytelling, for the birth of the novel:
- it is spread (è diffuso) with new publishing techniques, printing and means of transportation;
- the cost is low;
- it is published in 19 installments at the beginning of each month;
- each edition ended in suspense that leads the reader to buy the next copy;
This is why many people are learning to read and write. The author sometimes changes the story according to the
preferences of the readers, who are mostly women who don’t want references to sex and the setting is domestic and
familiar. The main genres are romantic, realistic or social, psychological, naturalistic, colonial, gothic, and mystery.
In the Victorian period, thanks to new innovations, some geologists discover fossils that contradict the book of
Genesis. The process is continued by Sir Charles Lyell with the work "Principles of Geology", by Robert Chambers with
the work "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation". Also Charles Darwin with the works "On the Origin of Species
by Natural Selection" and "The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex" spreads the theory of evolution and
natural selection, in which he states that living creatures develop their forms by change and adaptation to survive.
This theory goes against the creation described in the Bible, because it showed that the world isn’t static, but
continuously developing and that the stronger species manages to survive, while the weaker species becomes extinct.
Catholics organize in a movement led by Cardinal John Henry Newman, called the Oxford Movement, because it
originated in the university and took up the ancient rituals. Darwin's theory is taken up by philosopher Herbert
Spencer, who brings it closer to human society and states that races, nations and social classes are subject to the
survival principle and that the poor shouldn’t receive compassion. Another movement is Euganics, which is founded
by Sir Francis Galton, Darwin's cousin and seeks to persuade society to reproduce more.
Child labor also exploits children who work in coal mines, such as chimney sweeps or children who work for criminal
gangs. They are paid very little, one of them being Dickens, who began working at age 12 in a blacking factory. With
Victorian power many things change, in fact services and goods such as clothes, toys, silverware and glass are
introduced. The royal family is seen as a symbol, especially Queen Victoria, who represents the femininity on which
the family is based.
THE ROMANTIC PROSE
Its characteristics are:
- it moves away from reason, after the Enlightenment which had logic, reason and science as its basis, which had
countered Romantic literature with emotions, imagination and intuition;
- Nature becomes very important;
- there are supernatural elements;
- there is a lot of talk about man, his rights, his freedoms and their will to overcome imposed limitations. In fact, these
novels have the theme of rebellion, with characters doing actions just because they want to do them, without using
reason.
Many characters in romantic prose are similar to the "romantic or Byronic hero".
- they are rebellious and arrogant, because they do not follow laws;
- they distance themselves from society, because they put themselves first.
These aspects usually create impressions of the past, guilt and crimes kept secret.
In the Romantic period, there are 3 novels:
- HISTORIC ROMANCE= perhaps the inventor is Sir Walter Scott, who writes his novels in past times, with historical
and heroic characters. He wrote "Ivanhoe" in 1820 and "Kenilworth" in 1821. The main elements in his works are 2:
nature and the common life of people. The historical novel has been used by many famous English authors such as:
Charles Dickens, George Eliot and Thomas Hardy in the Victorian period and William Golding in the 20th century. In
Italy, the most important author of the historical novel is Alessandro Manzoni, who wrote between 1825 and 1827,
the work "I Promessi Sposi." He is also inspired by Scott and in fact uses ordinary people as protagonists, but criticizes
him for some errors in the historical period;
- GOTHIC ROMANCE= there are macabre, fantastic and supernatural elements and wild natural places. The most
famous work is Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," written in 1817. Many gothic elements were used by 19th century
writers such as "The Bronte Sisters." Today, we can say that they are used in horror fiction and films;
- CONSTITUTIONAL ROMANCE= the most famous writer of these novels is Jane Austen, who wrote "Sense and
Sensibility" in 1811 and "Pride and Prejudice" in 1813. Her novels are about relationships between families and
people in a rural setting, she uses social hierarchies (gerarchie sociali), describes their customs, and uses irony in her
dialogues. The main concerns (preoccupazioni) are: property, decorum, money, marriage and society, while the
economic theme is between the middle classes and the aristocracy.
